Hey,
I know that with sampling, and a lot of techno stuff out there playing a real intrument is starting to become a lost art. I, like every one else here have a passion for guitars and music. some more so than others. some with serious skills and some beginners. I myself consider my guitar skill to be somewhere in between intermedate range (being modest friends would say). I have some skill but I dont know everything. I have no Idea what a pentatonic scale is or how to play one. I cant read music. But I got decent chops and know far more than any beginner. which landed me this crazy idea. or maybe its not so crazy? I've been approched on serveral occasions if I could give guitar lessons or if I do give guitar lessons.

I think you all know where Im going with this. Being my skill level (intermediate). Would it be a complete waste of time for me to start teaching the basics? I mean I researched it on the web and there are folks in my area that are charging decent rates but they "hold a masters in music theory", And can teach sightreading, composition and other bells and whistles. All I have is passion for music and the guitar. would I be totally wasting peoples time if I tried to teach them to play and possibly ask for payment? I know that I have my theroies on how to try to teach after taking two different sets of guitar lessons as I was younger. One was classical I think I quit becuase I wanted to play and not learn the theory of playing a guitar. The other lessons I dropped out of only tought me tablature. It was cool but the first time I played with a group I was embarrased that I hadnt learned anything at all! (ah how far I've come). I had to learn on my own and from jamming with more talent eventaully other's talent rubbed off on me. where would I begin to teach? Whats considered beginners? Do I have to teach music? and reading music? do I have to teach scales?
I was hoping to teach all the major chords and find modern 3 chord songs so that it doesnt seem like im wasting time. and the just teach them the 12 bar blues.
Does any one here give lessons? Im not asking for your teaching material. But just your advice. I can take constructive critizism. even if I have to hear I dont have the skill to teach. I have thick skin.

A true measure of one's skill is to to teach the craft he or she is good at. Until you try and teach, it's all really just a guess. Also, anybody can teach, long as the teacher has something to teach that the student wants to learn. Now, from the economic side of things, it really helps to have a piece of paper saying you know your stuff if you want to become a serious teacher (want to have lots of students and really devote time and energy). If you want to have 2-4 beginning students, just want to show them the ropes and make a little cash on the side, then you're probably alright with what you know. There is always lots of people who just want to learn chords and play, not wanting anything to do with theory. You could always start out teaching friends/family/acquaintances for free just to see if it's something you want to do, it's definitely worth a try.

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

To be honest mate, and I may get shouted down here by others, I think you need some musical knowledge to teach.

I don't have a teaching qualification and I teach but I do know the rudiments of music. Now don't get me wrong, many many guitarists don't know the rudiments of music and you don't need to know it to play but to teach I think you have to be able to explain certain things musically.

As far teaching 12 bar and three chord songs......it's possible but teaching blues without knowing what a pentatonic scale is.......

If you have had folks asking about lessons then you are obviously at a certain standard but I would say go and learn some scales and I don't mean go and learn every scale that you can, just major, minor, pentatonic, blues and their variations first then you can approach teaching and lesson plans etc with a bit more authority, which is what people are paying for. Learning a few scales may also open up your eyes to further your own playing. (That sounds really patronising and it aint meant to honestly.... )

Just my opinion mind you..........

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

Willie Nelson gave guitar lessons way back when and said he knew little more than his students...he would give a lesson and then learn something new before he gave the student the next one.
But I agree with the opinion expressed before,if you don't know a pentatonic scale you only have a method of playing by ear,and that's not enough knowledge to teach 12 bar blues.....oh yeah the old blues guys might not have known such things,but that's history.

Yes Thank you pappawookee! I have been browsing the web for beginner lessons and looking over simple scales. I guess Im self teaching myself the beginners stuff so I can re-teach it. If that makes sense.

Go for it man!

I bet as you're looking through the scales you will probably find that you already play them but just didn't know what they were....

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

If your mind is set on teaching, teach and dont look back. I think most folks resent some smart $@! with a degree breathing down the back of there neck and would learn a lot from a guy like you. Good luck and I for one want to here moore.

If you know someone that wants to learn how to play like you do, go for it. Some of my teachers I've had over the years were just teaching how to play certain songs on guitar, not how to play guitar. It depends what the student is looking for. I've been playing for about 45 years and I'm thinking of starting lessons again so I understand what I'm playing better. It's been so long since I've had to read music that I tried recently and realized I'm back at beginners square 1.5.

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I think as long as you know what your teaching you would be OK. As long as your students don,t expect more from you.

morbe, sounds like a cool plan, you want to teach guitar! Good luck Bro!

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I'm getting a lot of great Feed Back thanks! These classes I planned to teach are very basic I guess. Starting with the parts of a guitar, using a tuner, harmonix tuning, The "CAGED" chords, and teach a modern song in the student genre. when the student feels confident in chord changing. I will play along with him on either Bass or Drums (I remember how great it felt to play with other players).
one thing I dont want to do is teach them with a guitar in my hand. I remember trying to learn from guitarist that were better than I was, and I felt so intimidated and thought to my self, "Wow I suck I have a long way to go." The only reason I didnt quit was because I truly loved to play the guitar.
I want to accomplish two things here:
1. Leave the student with a warm an fuzzy feeling of, "I can do this! I want to pursue this further!"
2. Create a possitive learning environment free of intimidation, and with the mind set that you have to crawl before you can learn to walk. and walk before you can run. (God knows I did a lot of crawling with the guitar). No one (including me) takes a couple of classes and a week later is a Guitar god.
Maybe I should advertise as "Intro to Guitar playing" and not "Beginner Guitar" that way there is no extra expectations from the student and teacher?

I'd suggest you invest a little time in checking out Keith Wyatt's videos (Used to play for The Blasters) as he now teaches full time.

Also Marty Schwartz on Guitar Jamz.

There's also the Arlen Roth vids on Gibson.

See how they teach--all have different styles, see what you like and want to do.

I un-learned all I know from this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJswneBvaqs

ok here is what im hearing,
you want to teach guitar but really dont know what it is exactly your doing,
but can hold your own when playing. wow theres a huge problem right there, and so proves a point ive been making for a very long time. basic music theory is a huge advantage over not knowing. so what your saying to me is, you know words but have no clue on how to form sentences. relax bro, your not alone. the great thing is that your expressing that you want to give back whats taken you several hard yrs to learn.
ok your at a advantage here in a way. you need a few good quality books to get you up to pace. God knows in my quest to form sentences myself ive seen or bought every book known to man trying to make sense of it all and have failed miserably, until about 6 months ago. i came across a good book, tell ya about that in a second, to tell you about another good book lol. ive combined my efforts to 4 books. the first and easiest to read and understand was once suggested by texasguitarslinger on here. she mentioned it and i ordered it that minute, its called Matt Smiths Chop Shop. this book was a great buy.
its easy to follow and easy to understand. what often happens is you will find a great teacher who knows everything, buy their way of teaching just doesnt make sense to me.
well matt delivered. thank you TGS for that. ok so i found another book that happened to make sense to me. its a workbook. i now have 1 book to read and comprehention, while another book allows me to study and to writing exercises. writing helps the mind retain what it learns much quicker than seeing and doing. its been proven over and over again.
it Musicians Institute Guitar fretboard workbook. very easy to follow and its laid out in a nice convenient lesson plan. this way you can test yourself to see if your really putting into your mind what youve been learning. being able to do what matt has shown you is one thing, putting to to mind and storing it is another.
next i bought a book that caught my eye as well. Theory for the Contemporary guitarist.
this book covers a lot of what matt has taught but goes into a little more depth in places his book didnt. its a breeze to go through once you have passed matts book. its a little different approach to a lot of the same stuff with new ideas and a little more depth in some aresa. kind tough to work in w/o ole matt though. lastly, a good friend of mine is a guitar teacher. he teaches all ages. when i was talking to him about his teaching and how he set things up for his students he showed me a book. he said his biggest troubles when starting to teach was having a book set he could work out of w/o having the students bouncing from book to book to book trying to learn his lesson plans. so he said he went on a search to find the least amount of books but yet finding quality info and a complete lesson plan. he found a system called FretBoard logic. i bought the book also. this book/system is a very complete series for a student that either has some knowledge
of how to put the setences together (like we talked about above) or, has somebody there to answer questions as ya go. with the books above and this system, you will be in great working/teaching order by yrs end. now, you being already a intermediate guitar player, your gonna know a lot of whats in these books already so your a step ahead of the game on this and will be able to breeze right through a lot of the chapters and lessons
like i did. thing is, after this $100 in books, im much better guitar player than i ever was before. just knowing what it was that i was already doing, but didnt know what it was, made me better than before. then, in knowing how and why things worked together the way they do is wonderful. its like a whole new world has opened up to me.
you do these books, and learn what they teach you, your musical reading,writing, and comprehention skills will be amazing and it will open up a whole new world for you.
i know its hard to believe but im walking the walk right now coming from a background very much the same as yours. im in the middle of the journey right now myself. honestly, i cant put these books down, im addicted, and its great too. so if you really want to teach, you first have got to understand what it is that you already know. kid of a weird way of putting that isnt it lol. good luck in your journey. now, my friend i mentioned above, he teachs the FretBorad logic system and swears its a God send for him. his students can get these books anywhere and the info in them is extrodinary he says.
ive skipped my way through it and its everything i myself have always wanted and needed to know, but not writen in a language that makes sense to me, YET. Billy makes his living teaching guitar at his home, but works at guitarcenter for the insurance and discounts he says. i know GC doesnt pay him a whole lot so hes making good money (cash) with his lessons. you can tell that by what he drives and all the extra lil trips he gets to go on throughout the yr. to dang many lol. whatever you do good luck to you on this, and most of all, have fun while your doing it.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Thanks, WayCool Jr,
what your saying make total sense! I had been playing the 12 bar blues for years and didnt even know it until someone told me what it was. Were jamming to some Chuck Berry song and then the bass player wanted to play "move it on over" and he said it was 12 bar "I-IV-VI out of D instead of A" I think he said. One he explained what I have been doing all this time It was like bulb going off in your head! Like a big "Ahhh!" or "Taaadaaa!"
Som I totaly understand what your saying.
I have always looked a books in the book store to learn more about what I'm doing now that I finally have some insite on what a good book is I will get one. but at $100 maybe I will just start with Chop shop first. Thanks!
I'm very greatfull for all the POSITIVE encouragement I've been getting. I though I was going to get laughed out of the forums with this thread. I honestly am greatfull for the Attitude of "Here is what you should do or know before you start"
Thanks Again.